The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Nothing Left to Lose

Yesterday was the craziest day I’ve ever had as a Padres fan. It all started when I got the news that a trade was in place to send Jake Peavy to the White Sox. I kept checking the news all morning, but nothing was going on.

Around one in the afternoon, I found out that we got Anthony Gwynn Jr. That really shocked me. But we got him at a cost: we traded Jody Gerut to Milwaukee for him. I kind of feel sad about Jody. We gave him a chance to play last year after he went through a lot, and he really took advantage of that. He wasn’t playing the best this season so far, but I hope he will get a chance with Milwaukee. Goodbye, Jody!

Though I am slightly sad about Jody, we’ve got T. Gwynn Jr. now! The fans have been talking about possibly getting him for essentially his whole baseball career, so it’s really amazing to finally have him here. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m not exactly sure what the Padres’ plans for him are, but I think he’ll get to play.

Welcome to San Diego, Anthony!

Around four in the afternoon, I started listening to the Padres BP show on XX1090, the Padres’ flagship station. Naturally, they talked a lot about Jake and Anthony. It was really interesting to hear their opinions about Jake and why he’s being shopped and why this is a bad time and their overall thoughts about everything (the guys on the show are Darren Smith, Randy Jones, and Dave “Doc” Roberts).

Also around four, Jake gave a statement from the Padres dugout. Half an hour afterwards, they aired it on the radio.

“Right now, this is the best place for me and my family,” Peavy said.

And that was that. He said that it’s been a crazy 24 hours with all the rumors and stuff, but that this is where he needs to be right now. He did not take any questions, but he will answer the barrage that is sure to hit him tonight AFTER his start against the Cubs. He metioned that his buddy Roy and his family decided. That shows you how close Jake and Roy Oswalt really are. Those country boys are best friends, and it’s kind of cool that Jake brought him into the decision.

So, that was a relief. I’m sure that there are going to be more offers, and he still might get traded this season. But for now, for tonight, he’s ours. He’s going to get out there and pitch hard and try to get his team a win. I know he’s looking forward to pitching against Zambrano.

He said that he doesn’t want to be a distraction, but it kind of was. At least, before the game it was. There was a ton of media in the clubhouse before the game, and some of the guys were joking about how they were here because the Padres had won five straight. Then in the BP show, they were saying that there’s a rumor going around that the Giants are still in town and that there’s a game to be played or something.

In Buddy Black’s meeting with the media before the game, he got hit with essentially the same question over and over again: is this going to distract the players as they play this game? And Buddy got pretty frustrated, which is unusual. He kept having to say that these players are professionals, they know this is a business, and that they will not be distracted during the game. Sure, they’ll be talking about it, but they won’t be affected by it.

Apparently the White Sox were furious that news of this “deal” went public. It’s pretty amazing how news travels, though. Once the articles started leaking out, more and more people heard about it, bloggers got going about it, and rumors were flying all over the place. The guys on the BP show were speculating on who could have leaked the story, and they suggested the Padres. The Padres could have wanted to put some pressure on Jake and get him to make a decision, and they could have leaked it to make the Cubs, who are coming in tonight, a little jealous and ready to make a deal. That makes me feel sick about my front office, but it could have happened. The guys put forth some pretty convincing arguements.

I think it was terribly handled by the Padres. First of all, all this was horrible timing. The Padres were on a five-game winning streak, and they were going into the third game of a series, trying to get a sweep. I mean, why then? Why not the week before when we were in a six-game losing streak? It just doesn’t make sense. And I mean, we’re winning. We can win with Jake. So why would we try to get rid of him while this team is slowly getting better? Besides, the players that we were probably going to get back would be minor league prospects. What does that tell us? That tells us that the Padres are looking to the future. That tells us that they don’t really care about this season. Is that a good thing? I don’t know. Right now, this team looks like it will be pretty good for the rest of the season. But if we have a chance to trade our big players for guys that will help us in the future, is it worth it to waste this season for that?

I am so glad I’m not in that front office right now.

Well, I think that’s enough of that. I could probably go on and on about Jake and this crazy day, but I still have a big game to recap.

Kevin Correia started, and was excellent. He has definitely been getting into a groove, and is pitching very well. He went 6.1 innings, giving up six hits and one run (Aaron Rowand home run in the sixth) with NO walks! I am so excited for him. Walks have been one of his biggest problems, and it is so cool that he didn’t walk any.

The Padres got their first run on a David Eckstein single in the fourth. Tim Lincecum was good, but we were able to get a run off of him. He actually had 10 strikeouts, yikes!

Joe Thatcher, who must have had an arm transplant or something, threw 0.2 scoreless innings. Edward Mujica had a perfect inning with two strikeouts (yes, it’s true, Melissa!).

But the story of this game was really the ninth inning. In the top half, Heath Bell came into the tie game to try to hold the Giants down. For the first time this season, he struggled. He allowed four hits and the go-ahead run. Poor guy. That was the first run he allowed all season. He raised his ERA from 0.00 to 0.50.

So, down 2-1, the Padres went to the bottom of the ninth against Brian Wilson, one of the toughest closers in baseball. I was watching Gameday and talking to my boys.

Kouz came up to the plate first and was 0-fer, so I kept talking to my “baby” trying to get him to get a hit. And he did! That’s the way to do it, Kouz!!

Nick Hundley sac-bunted him to second, and then Anthony Gwynn made his debut for the Padres. It would have been so cool if he could get something like a game-winning hit (a home run perhaps), but he got walked. That was great though, ’cause it put the winning run on base.

Next, Edgar Gonzalez struck out. AHHHH!! I wasn’t too happy with him, especially since Brian Giles and his .161 batting average coming to the plate. But one thing Brian does exceptionally is take pitches and get walked, which is precisely what he did. So, now we have bases loaded with two outs, tying run on third and winning run on second. Hyun Young’s boy Eck came to the plate. All he needed was a single or so, but he really took one for the team.

The first pitch from Wilson hit Eck in the left elbow. It didn’t even look like it hurt. He just tossed his bat and trotted down to first, as Kouz ran home with the tying run.

Next, Scott “Walk-off” Hairston came to the plate. He took a called strike before lining a single to left, scoring Tony Gwynn himself. What a homecoming, huh?

This picture is really funny. First of all, that’s Everth Cabrera on the left, yeah the one with the broken hand. What I must ask is, why is he out there jumping and possibly injuring himself again? And then Kouz, he looks like his neck is broken!! I’ve noticed that the two baldys like to jump on each other. It’s pretty funny.

It was an excellent walk-off win and second straight SWEEP! Also, the Giants are 0-6 here at Petco Park so far this season. My Padres are HOT right now!!

Tonight we are playing the Cubs, with Jake against Zambrano. It’s going to be a very interesting game, and I bet it’s going to be a huge crowd.

Jake’s going to have soooo many questions after the game. I would love to be in that press conference.

My title is kind of ironic. We are on this huge winning streak, and I’m hoping that we won’t be losing a game soon. Of course, we still have a ton of players we could “lose”, but we survived almost losing our ace yesterday. If we can survive that, we can survive losing any other players, right? Except Kouz.

Oh yeah – the Latest Leaders came out yesterday. It sort of got lost in all the shuffle for me. I got #17, and that might be the best I have ever been. I think it is…so thank you so much for reading and supporting this blog. You guys are amazing! I’m not going to do a big dedication entry, but I’m going to dedicate this ranking to Tony Gwynn Jr. It works: Tony Gwynn Sr. was #19 for the whole time he was with the Padres. Now that number is retired, but the Padres gave Jr. #18 yesterday. I’m dedicating #17 to #18, our newest Padre.

Hopefully today won’t be as crazy as yesterday.

GO PADRES!!!

(photo credits: padres.com, Sean M. Haffey/Union-Tribune)

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7 Comments

Congrats on the great day yesterday. Peavy is staying and you got a walk-off win. Must feel great. I’m glad Peavy is staying with you guys. I didn’t see the White Sox a fit for him. Interesting to see that T.G. Jr. is going to the Padres where his dad played. Good for him.
Darionhttp://darion.mlblogs.com/

I FINALLY have a new entry! Anyway, congrats on the rank. You deserved it. I can’t believe Jake is staying!!! This is wonderful. I was a bit disappointed about Jody leaving. But I hope he will have fun at Milwaekee with Trevor and his crew. Last night’s game was amazing. Did you hear about when Eck couldn’t catch a pop fly? That was hilarious! The ball bounced right infront of him when he called it. We can take down the Cubs tonight. Go Padres!!http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com

That must have been some day yesterday. I didn’t get the timing of it either, with the Padres playing good baseball. I thought it was a little early in the season to be jumping ship, which I think that is what it would be if they got rid of him.Russhttp://wight4256.mlblogs.com

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